Kyrsten Sinema says in court filings she had a ‘romantic’ relationship with guard | Kyrsten Sinema

Kyrsten Sinema, a former US senator, admitted in court to having a “romantic and intimate” relationship with a married man who was a member of her security detail during her final year in office – but argues that his ex-wife should not be able to sue her for it.

The admission of the multistate affair follows a lawsuit filed by Heather Ammel, who accused the former Arizona senator in federal court of breaking up her marriage under North Carolina’s so-called “homewrecker” law.

In court papers filed March 12, Sinema asked a federal judge to dismiss the case, saying in affidavits that she had no ties to North Carolina, where the bodyguard, Matthew Joseph Ammel, resided with his wife and children. She noted that she was “physically intimate” with Matthew in four states as well as Washington DC – but not once in North Carolina.

Additionally, between early 2023 and November 1, 2024, Sinema claims that “100%” of her phone calls and email communications with Matthew took place while he was outside of North Carolina – and were largely related to his work in Senate Security, which involved frequent travel.

She says she didn’t know Matthew was living in North Carolina with his family until December 2023, more than a year after he started working for her in security. Sinema also maintained that she had no knowledge of Matthew’s whereabouts “on a day-to-day basis” unless it was related to travel as part of her security services.

As part of the filing, Sinema detailed a half-dozen encounters in which she said she was “physically intimate” with Matthew. The first documented meeting took place in Sonoma, California, in late May 2024, approximately two months after she announced her decision not to run again and several months before he separated from his wife. She said they had other meetings in New York; Washington DC; Aspen, Colorado and Phoenix, Arizona.

According to Heather’s lawsuit, she had a “good and loving marriage” with her husband before Sinema’s “deliberate interference.” She accused Sinema of pursuing Matthew even though she knew he was married.

Heather claimed she discovered messages exchanged between her husband and Sinema that “exceeded the boundaries of a normal working relationship and were romantic and lascivious in nature,” including a photo of the then-senator wrapped in a towel.

In the lawsuit, Heather also alleged that Sinema paid for the psychedelic treatment of Matthew, a U.S. Army veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress, drug addiction and head injuries related to his military deployments.

Sinema denies ever sending a photo of herself “wrapped in a towel” and says she has “no memory” of sending “a message” to Matthew suggesting he bring MDMA on a work trip so she could “guide him through a psychedelic experience.”

Campaign finance filings show Matthew received nearly $9,000 in October from Sinema’s former campaign committee. Other unusual campaign expenses include hotels in Saudi Arabia, wine and “gifts” from Taylor Swift’s official gift shop.

A complaint filed in February by a campaign watchdog group accuses Sinema of improperly spending her political campaign funds on personal expenses. He cites her relationship with Matthew, noting that her campaign committee continued to compensate him for his services after she left office in January 2025. Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings show that her committee, which has since been disbanded, paid Matthew more than $100,000 between January and October 2025.

In Sinema’s motion to dismiss, she says she joined the Ammel family, including their three children, at a Taylor Swift concert in Miami in October. The Ammels stayed in different hotel rooms during the trip, according to legal documents. A few days later, according to Heather’s lawsuit, Matthew accompanied Sinema on a work trip to Saudi Arabia. Upon his return, the couple separated and he left their home in North Carolina.

North Carolina is one of the few U.S. states where spouses can sue a third party – often the “paramor” – for alienation of affection resulting from an affair. But Sinema says Heather’s lawsuit against her should be dismissed because the matter at the center of the case took place “exclusively outside” North Carolina.

The case has focused renewed attention on Sinema, the Democrat-turned-independent who served one term in the Senate after flipping her seat in 2018 in a politically competitive state. She emerged as a key bipartisan negotiator but infuriated fellow Democrats by blocking some top legislative priorities when their party held the White House during Joe Biden’s presidency.

Since leaving the Senate, Sinema has continued to raise eyebrows with her work on issues such as cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence as a senior advisor to the law and lobbying firm Hogan Lovells.

She has also openly advocated for psychedelic medicine and has spoken openly about her experience with ibogaine treatment to prevent dementia.

Consolidating its shift to the right, the Washington Reporter recently announced that Sinema would join the conservative outlet as a columnist, bringing “an inside look at some of the most important political debates.”